Pages

Finally planting time!

This was the first weekend when we went above 60 degrees, and yesterday even reached 67. So I checked my soil and it was finally warm enough to start planting some of my cold-seasoned veggies: Peas, chards, beets, onions, potatoes, spinach, arugula, lettuce and asian greens like mustards, chinese kale and bok choy. Potatoes were LONG overdue to be planted and the ones I put in a tray to "chit" early were overgrown and started to dry out a bit. That was a mix of white and fingerlings, so while I did plant them, I won't mind if some didn't come up.

Thankfully the second batch was more stable and included purple and red potatoes that I wanted to plant for my hubby to eat in salads. I don't care much for red variety but he loves it. As you can see, not much was planted for each type.

Also planted but forgot to take picture was my Yukon Golds - only a handful went into a bed in large garden so we can eat early in summer, but the main planting will go to the farm area.
For the peas, I planted these varieties:
Peas - Blauschokker Shelling
Peas - Burpena Early
Peas - Garden Pea Laxton's Progress #9
Peas - Garden Sweet
Peas - Green Arrow Shelling
Peas - Snowbird
Peas - Sugar Ann Snap
Peas - Super Snappy
Peas - Super Sugar Snap Pea
Again, not too many for each, just enough to eat fresh and see which will perform better. The snow peas are for the stir-fry that my hubby loves. Now I just hope they'll make it without groundhog eating them down like last year. I'll do another post on beets and other greens later in a week.

On the seedling front at home, my tomatoes doing great and growing like weeds! Another few days and I'll be transferring them all to much larger pots and getting them ready for hardening off.

There is also a tray for the community garden - specific choices that my fellow gardeners asked me to plant for them.These were planted about 2 weeks after my first batch so they are smaller, but they're doing really well.

Peppers on the other hand are struggling and only few have woken up and started to grow. I still hope the rest will wake up soon, but I have a back up plan - gave bunch of seeds to have started at the greenhouse in much warmer conditions, so hopefully it will get me enough seedlings for both farm and home. Primary focus will be on sweet peppers for home eating and only few special ones from hot varieties for cooking.

I had to pluck my lonely lemon out of the lemon plant and put the plant outside as it decided to drop all leaves and has been very sick, so I hope some fresh air and sunshine will jump-start the growing process again. For now I'll be enjoying my tea with lemon :) And my sweet potato starting to root so hopefully soon will have slips growing.

10 comments:

Good to see you getting your hands dirty. I'm planning to plant peas etc. next weekend, as the soil in the chosen beds is still frozen down a few inches, even after the nice weather this weekend. I also have not yet started tomatoes. But I am in the process of hardening the broccoli! My potatoes and onions have not arrived from Fedco yet, so I'm figuring they know more than me about when to plant.

I planted only spring onions, not the storage variety to save on space. Normally they do get shipped much later if I order online, but this year I got them from local place. Hope your soil will "defrost" fast so you can get hands dirty too!

Wow - you are doing a LOT of planting now! Like Eight Gate Farm, I won't even be getting my seed potatoes for another week or so and their bed is not yet constructed - better get to that! I love that you are trialing so many different varieties this year - can't wait to see what your conclusions are later in the season!

I actually didn't plant a lot of things - just a few seeds for each type to get earlier start, and will be planting them in waves to keep harvest going longer. Hope your delivery comes in soon so you can plant too.

Hi! You plant a much bigger garden than I do but I have sugar peas, kale, spinach, lettuce and radishes up. Planted a few potatoes but no signs of them yet. Good luck on the critters not sharing your crop Nancy

About Me

I'm a Master Gardener affiliated with NJ The Rutgers Master Gardeners of Sussex County, and I love spending time in my back yard growing fruit and veggies for me and my husband. I like using simple techniques and ideas and share them with others. Hope this blog helps you with your garden.

Living Well Pathways

Since you have shown interest in my blog, you are probably like me – you appreciate the beauty of nature, and our connection to the earth. Just being out in nature, gardening and digging in the dirt, can be relaxing, meditative and ease the stress in our everyday lives. You can take it a step further, and begin exploring the mind and body connection through Reiki and life coaching to restore peace and balance. Curious? Find out more at www.livingwellpathways.com.